6 Reasons Why I Am Done with AirBnB as a Renter | Hacker News Reader

6 Reasons Why I Am Done with AirBnB as a Renter

donewithairbnb.wordpress.com

41 pointsgraniter29 comments

Startup idea - "real-airbnb-reviews" where you can post your uncensored experience.

Why be afraid to post your true feelings, whether positive or negative? Unless I plan to stay with the person again (which would mean I had a positive experience anyway), there should be no reason self-censor a negative review.

There is no way that I am aware of, where anyone can look up a list of your previous reviews. So it's not like it leaves a black mark on your profile to post truthful reviews.

The host guarantee on AirBnb isn't as great as most people assume.

We ate $1500 in damages on one of our first visitors, and we're off the platform now. The whole experience was a real bummer.

Can you give some more details please, curious what the issue was.

I am done with AirBnB in some countries, and will always use it in others.

It is a 'case by case' issue.

I feel the same way. I had multiple poor experiences in Japan, where I believe the issue was a cultural misunderstanding of what was expected of both renter and host.

Can you elaborate?

It seems interesting to know about the cultural misunderstanding.

Funny that it's a website and not a blog post.

They have Big Feels about this, so big that it requires an entire website.

I will think it is funny if this is the only post and that's it. (I have seen that on other topics: Create an entire website devoted to the topic with a topic-specific domain, post one and only one entry. Done.)

AirBNB has a number and it's not hard to find. From the AirBNB site, click Help -> Visit the Help Center -> Contact Us. The number is +1-415-800-5959 or +1-855-424-7262 (Toll-free).

Called that and was left waiting in the queue for 3 hours (about a house I had booked which didn't exist) before I gave up and had to sleep in the car.

Seems similar to my experiences - AirBnB neighbors throwing a rooftop party and their 'emergency' support won't help unless I can provide them with the airbnb listing of the owner (which I don't obviously have), rather than just the address.

In situations like mine it's easier to call the police - AirBnb aren't interested in helping and having a record of consistent antisocial behaviour (and illegal letting) will help you take action against the owner.

> Seems similar to my experiences - AirBnB neighbors throwing a rooftop party and their 'emergency' support won't help unless I can provide them with the airbnb listing of the owner (which I don't obviously have), rather than just the address.

> In situations like mine it's easier to call the police - AirBnb aren't interested in helping and having a record of consistent antisocial behaviour (and illegal letting) will help you take action against the owner.

It seems that the situation that your parent describes:

> > Called that and was left waiting in the queue for 3 hours (about a house I had booked which didn't exist) before I gave up and had to sleep in the car.

is different. That is a situation where a product that AirBnb had sold did not exist, and for which they should be held accountable. Any guarantees AirBnb makes about guests' behaviour (I don't remember if there are any) are to hosts, not neighbours; it seems to me that, if the hosts are not properly monitoring their guests' behaviour, then that should be a matter for the police. (What would you want AirBnb to do in that situation? It seems that at best they could address the issue of future parties, but not do anything about the one currently going on, which was, presumably, the problem.)

Yep it's a different situation, hence emphasising 'in situations like mine' in the post you're replying to.

> Yep it's a different situation, hence emphasising 'in situations like mine' in the post you're replying to.

Oh, I see. I was confused by "Seems similar to my experience", which I mistook to mean something like "I had a similar problem that I wanted resolved", but which I now think I understand correctly as "while trying to resolve a different problem, I had a similar customer-service experience."

Thanks for politely understanding and agreed I could have worded that better. :^)

Something similar happened to me on Christmas night (on a 4.5 star place no less). The place was practically a shack and couldn't house more than 2 people if we crammed in. We called them for about 2 hours and finally got a person who told me that as long as the place existed, there was nothing that they could do that night. Never using them again.

How did the money side of that work out? (I'm quite ignorant of the AirBnB payment process).

I never managed to contact a human about it.

The airbnb dispute process allows you to request money from the host, but doesn't let you get a full refund - only ~80%. In my view, the house not existing warrants at a minimum a full refund.

Instead I took it to my credit card company and got a full refund from them.

The money is released to the home owner 24h after the arrival date if no complaint has been raised by the renter. Luckily haven't had a reason to test this though.

Ok, hotels are still a thing. If you want the luxury of a concierge go ahead and pay for it. You're not "uncool" for doing so and after a year of using the service you should know what you're in for.

It's not about luxury or having a concierge. It's a basic trust issue. You can't trust AirBnB reviews.

We had an issue with a place where we wanted to stay for a week in Italy. There was a very noticeable smell of paint/dust, and we couldn't sleep. What do you do then? The host offered to "fix the problem", but how would you fix that? There's also the issue of proof: You can't take a photo of smell. Anyways, we got a percentage of the money back, but of course that meant that AirBnB wouldn't let us post a review. Basically, they pay you for your silence.

And that's why I wouldn't use AirBnB anymore either. You can't trust the reviews.

I'd fix that with an air purifier. I have several at my lodge for keeping dust down and making sure those with sensitive allergies don't have issues. I did use it successfully for a funky odor in a bedroom once too before guests arrived (I think it was originating from a vent).

Anyway, sorry for your issues. It's a big let down especially overseas when you don't get what you think you are getting. Good points in the article. The reviews aren't usually that helpful. My wife would ask me how to rate our guests and I'd tell her "aren't you going to feel really stupid if they rate us unfairly and you let them get away with being a bad guest"?

Hosts and renters need to be authentic with the reviews. If you wouldn't rent to them again - they should not get a good review. If you're a renter and you wouldn't rent there again - unless it was as described and you got what you paid for - that host shouldn't get a good review either.

When I'm renting I make sure they have enough good reviews and I also look for the imperfect reviews and see what the issue was but more importantly how the host responds. If they show good faith and seem reasonable then I like that. If they get all angry and seem like they might be unaccommodating to real issues - then steer clear!

I had a huge hurdle using Uber - after trying it once with someone else, I am now am a power user. I just cannot make the jump to AirBnB. I have friends who use it a lot. I found the rates paid by myself and friends are very similar .. when asked why not just use a hotel, my friends point at quaint/unique experiences, etc. I realized that this is not my thing (I don't "get" blue apron either FWIW).

This so much. Uber/Lyft were shockingly better than taxis. I tried AirBnB expecting the same and wow was that not the case. Went to a beach and was hoping to have a destination ready _with_ cooking facilities(hard requirement traveling with an allergic child). Arived ther & spent 45 minutes wandering up and down the beach showing the listing/owner photo to everyone in sight. Nobody's ever heard of them. Later that day the owner who lives hundreds of miles away airbnb messages us to say that the name of the beach resort and the contact info aren't what's actually shown in the listing. Of course we don't have internet then & have already given up and chosen another hotel. By the time we got back to civilization/internet we've already missed the window to leave feedback/dispute. First time in my life I've ever done a credit card chargeback. What a colossal PITA. I figure I wasted 2 to 4 hours fighting with their website between signup(reproducible bugs), trying to dispute/leave feedback/contact them(gave up eventually), and the chargeback. Totally not worth it for 30 something bucks but darn they need some sort of feedback, because I really _want_ to like them. They _should_ be uber/lyft for apartments because that would be awesome, but my experience was a million times worse than agoda/travelcity/whatever.

The girlfriend and I wanted a cheap experience in South Beach, Miami. We found a reasonably priced one bedroom (queen bed and a pullout couch) apartment a block from the beach with tons of restaurants and bars nearby. If we got a room in any of the hotels down the street, it would have cost double to triple the rate. We used some of the money we saved from not getting a hotel for a rental car and were able to get groceries and tour the rest of Miami on our own. We were pretty lucky to find the apartment that we did, it was recently renovated, was spotless, and the owner was the nicest person ever. The major selling point was just the price and the ability to have our own kitchen, something you usually don't get unless you upgrade to a huge room. We could have easily split the cost with another couple and saved even more but the place was just right for us. I would get the same place again if we ever go back. My parents are a fan of the hotel experience, they have the money to afford it. We could have too but we valued the "living" experience more than the "visiting" experience.

So basically you're done with AirBnB for a reason that has nothing to do with AirBnB (the fact that some people are awful).

These have everything to do with AirBnB. The problems he lists are inherent to the platform, i.e., a website where random people rent out their property to other random people. The competition (the hotel "platform") does not have this problem. AirBnB could attempt to fix things by being stricter with hosts, providing better guarantees to renters, etc. But they don't.

This response is too clever by half. Any traveller knows the difference between a Best Western and an AirBnB in terms of staff service quality.

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